Indian Agricultural Development in Changing Scenario Past , Present and Future

Indian agriculture is the largest private sector enterprise in the country of over 110 million farmers. It engages two-third of total workforce, contributes to 26 per cent of the GDP and nearly one-sixth of the total export earnings. India inherited a stagnant agriculture at the time of independence growing at an annual rate of growth of 0.3 per cent in the first half of the last century. Due to the planned Government policies, technological support provided by agricultural scientists and hard work put in by the farmers, Indian agriculture has achieved an annual growth rate of 2.7 per cent in the post independence era. During the decade of 1980's the growth in food grain production was most impressive at about 3.7 per cent compared to population growth of 2.2 per cent. Unfortunately, it slowed down in nineties to 1.8 per cent, lower than the population growth of 2 per cent. Further, within the agriculture sector too, the development has been uneven in production and productivity across regions and crops.